Need some help to identify a type of tea.

White and yellow teas are among the most subtle.


User avatar
Dec 8th, '10, 23:56
Posts: 28
Joined: Nov 2nd, '10, 23:38
Location: China, Guangxi

Re: Need some help to identify a type of tea.

by legend » Dec 8th, '10, 23:56

I am using the Chinese system to classify tea in this way. The Yue Guang bai would be a Sheng cha but yes it could definately be thought of as a White tea in terms of its relationship with proccessing method.
However, traditionally the content of certain white teas are explicit:
Yin zhen bai hao = one bud 一牙, Bai Mu Dan = one bud and one leaf 一芽一叶. Just to say there are no lower grades of these teas encorporating other material, that is a marketing ploy.

I am of course using the Chinese sytem to classify:
Just as all black tea (this is hei cha 黑茶- not fully oxidized teas that would be Red tea hong cha 红茶)All black tea this way begins as a product of Qing cha 青茶 class- known in the west as WuLong, whereby the leaves are only partially oxidized- then the leaves are given different forms of secondary fermintation making them into Hei cha (Puer Shu cha is the extreme case) but other Hei cha uses a more natural method of Wo Dui 沃堆 for a more natural fermentation- or it is not put through its secondary fermentation and it will go trhough the process later on its own( the extreme case in Puer Sheng cha). By the Chinese system Puer is a category of Hei cha it is designated as- Yunnan Da ye zhong, shai qing de ye zi, which means Yunnan large leaf type, sun dried leaves. It is in fact different than other Hei cha(Liu Bao, Hunan and Sichuan Hei Cha, etc.) because Puer Shu cha (普洱熟茶) and Puer Sheng cha (普洱生茶) are explicitly made into two extremes on the spectrum of secondary fermentation. Most of the other black teas in general falll into the middle of that spectrum. So in the classification system from the Chinese tradition, names and designations come under type- so Puer is under 黑茶Hei cha, just as Wu Yi Yan Cha (Da Hong Pao, Shui Xian, etc.) is under 青茶 Qing cha or Wulong cha.
Last edited by legend on Dec 9th, '10, 00:14, edited 2 times in total.

User avatar
Dec 9th, '10, 00:00
Posts: 28
Joined: Nov 2nd, '10, 23:38
Location: China, Guangxi

Re: Need some help to identify a type of tea.

by legend » Dec 9th, '10, 00:00

I see where you may heve been confused Chip. there are different things in what legend says:
> that this tea we see on the picture is not what it claimed, but that it is in fact yue guang bai.
Please look again I did not say it is Yue Guang Bai, obviously it is not. I said it is related because it is a type of Sheng cha that marketed as a white tea. If you want to think of it as white tea thats OK, but it is not a specific white tea such as Yin Zhen Bai Hao or Bai Mu Dan.

See here I have photographed and explained Yue Guang Bai:
http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13194

Dec 9th, '10, 08:52
Posts: 143
Joined: May 3rd, '10, 17:09
Location: france

Re: Need some help to identify a type of tea.

by alan logan » Dec 9th, '10, 08:52

oh yes this is right, you wrote it would be related to yue guang bai.

I do not absolutely want to think it is a white tea, i would not exclude it but the pic does not really say much.

+ Post Reply